Throughout this year, several bloggers will engage in a conversation here and on their blogs — asking questions of each other and responding. Others are absolutely welcome to join the conversation, as well. Learn more about the ladies of Blogversation 2012. Today’s question comes from Lesley Ware, www.thecreativecookie.net. On Twitter, Lesley is @creativecookie. For as long as I can remember…
One of my favorite blogs, Zen Habits, recently had a blog post that inspired me to share it here — and to supplement it with my own story about letting go of the illusion of control. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqktEPJIX3c] The Unpredictable Freedom and Sweetness of Chaos Post written by Leo Babauta ‘You must have chaos within you to give birth to a…
One of my favorite insights is that when someone says they don’t have time, what he really means is, “I choose to spend my time on something besides that.”
Because we all have the same 24 hours, and we all choose how to spend those hours, even if we don’t always choose wisely.
Throughout this year, several bloggers will engage in a conversation here and on their blogs — asking questions of each other and responding. Others are absolutely welcome to join the conversation, as well. Learn more about the ladies of Blogversation 2012. Today’s question comes from Lauren McCabe, mermaidchronicles.com, @mermaidtales on Twitter: Perfection vs Perfunctory – Which Is Better? This is…
From Jim Morrison to Michael Jackson, from Janis Joplin to Amy Winehouse, perhaps the saddest part of Whitney Houston’s death is that she’s hardly the first great talent to burn hot and flame out. So many people have already written smarter, better informed pieces about Whitney’s rise and fall than I could ever hope to touch, so I’ll just point…
Throughout this year, several bloggers will engage in a conversation here and on their blogs — asking questions of each other and responding. Others are absolutely welcome to join the conversation, as well. Learn more about the ladies of Blogversation 2012. The Blogversation kicked off a month ago and in case you haven’t followed the conversation, this is a recap…
Throughout this year, several bloggers will engage in a conversation here and on their blogs — asking questions of each other and responding. Others are absolutely welcome to join the conversation, as well. Learn more about the ladies of Blogversation 2012. I had such a wild 2011, a year of such intense personal and professional transformation, that it’s hard to…
I like contrarian advice — not that I always agree with the devil’s advocate view, but I think it’s useful to challenge conventional wisdom and reconsider whether you still believe it’s true. For example: Do you really need to drink eight glasses of water a day? Is eight hours of sleep best for you? Should all couples be monogamous? Are…
Throughout this year, several bloggers will engage in a conversation here and on their blogs — asking questions of each other and responding. Others are absolutely welcome to join the conversation, as well. Learn more about the ladies of Blogversation 2012. I like using the calendar as a prompt in my life. I’m a big fan of birthdays, and I…
Throughout this year, several bloggers will engage in a conversation here and on their blogs — asking questions of each other and responding. Learn more about the ladies of Blogversation 2012. I first started blogging in 2006 with a limited goal: We were going to spend a month subletting a New York City apartment, giving us a chance to test…
In the three years I’ve been blogging here, I’ve been grateful for the opportunity to write regularly and to get to know topics and people that inspire me. Even more so, I’ve loved the chance to engage in conversations about those topics and people. Ages ago, when I was a young newspaper reporter, writing was mostly a one-way process. Occasionally…
If you’re looking for a little reading material today — maybe the Sunday paper isn’t doing it for you, maybe you’re a bit hung over from ringing in the new year, maybe you’re killing time ’til a college bowl game — I’m here to help. According to my WordPress stats, these were my 10 most-visited posts in 2011: Why the…
I launched this blog Jan. 1, 2009 in what I might describe in retrospect as pre-midlife crisis. I’d spent five years in Michigan’s evening MBA program, focused on graduating and getting a new job in New York. Then having made that move, I enjoyed my new career for three years before beginning to ask “What’s next?” I’ve always been a…
If you know nothing else about the late mythologist Joseph Campbell, it might be his oft-quoted call to follow your bliss. About a year ago, career coach Kim Curtin gave me advice I hadn’t expected: watch Campbell’s interviews with Bill Moyers and see what inspiration comes about following your bliss. Then Kim started talking about the recent premiere of Finding…
New York Times columnist David Brooks recently ran an interesting amateur sociology experiment: he solicited what he called “life reports” from people 70 years old and up, sharing what they had done well and poorly, then he combed them for lessons. With the giant caveats that: these are people who read the New York Times and opted in to sharing…
You’ve probably heard the cliché that no one on his death bed wishes he’d spent more time at the office. But while I was there as both my mother and stepmother died, I don’t have any great insight into the psyche of the dying and what they wish they had or hadn’t done with their time on earth. So I…
I recall hearing a story years ago that one of the drivers of the technology revolution and dot-com boom was the hard economy of the 1980s — facing shaky job prospects, the best and brightest were more inclined to strike out on their own and innovate instead of serving corporate bosses. I haven’t seen data proving the recession forced people…
My fabulous friend Sara Grace recently wrote a blog post inspired by a study of how men and women behave differently at work. Some statistics cited: Men are 25% more likely to take breaks throughout the day for personal activities 7% more likely to take a walk 5% more likely to go out to lunch 35% more likely to take…
This spring I wrote a freelance story for LSA Magazine at University of Michigan, profiling several Michigan grads working to reinvent New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina made landfall in August 2005, followed by the catastrophic failure of the city’s levees, flooding much of the city and turning Katrina into the costliest natural disaster in American history. Elsewhere, time is measured…
Earlier this week I shared advice Ira Glass gave to beginning storytellers. Here’s a follow up from my Brooklyn pal, Amanda Hirsch, who wrote a tongue-in-cheek 10-step plan to being an artist. You get the idea when you read Step 1: Refuse to do the work. Avoid it at all costs. If you want to write, you should instead check…
Ira Glass, host of This American Life, offers some great advice in this five-minute video below. He says it better — he is, after all, a professional storyteller — but the moral is that you start doing something because you appreciate that thing and those who do it well, but when you start out, your rookie ability will be nowhere…
One of my first bosses had a rule: if I was going to take a problem to him, I had to have at least one solution in mind. It didn’t have to be perfect, but I had to take the time to consider some options before dropping the issue on his desk. It was excellent guidance because it put the…
